The best night of the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs (so far) is upon us

Strap in, there’s a good chance that Wednesday night might be the best night of the entire Stanley Cup Playoffs.

There are two do-or-die Game 7s on the schedule, with the Capitals slated to take on the Penguins in Washington, followed by the Ducks playing host to the Oilers in Edmonton.

They will be the first two series of the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs to go the distance. While the stakes are obviously high, they seem even greater than usual thanks to the array of narratives surrounding both games.

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There will be chaos in Washington, regardless of the result.

The Capitals will either advance to their first-ever conference final in the Ovechkin era or they’ll face the same fate they saw last season -- winning the Presidents’ Trophy only to be eliminated by the Penguins in the second round.

For the Caps, this could be a franchise-altering 60-plus minutes of hockey.

If they come up short, it might sting for a long time.

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Talent-wise, this is arguably the best team Washington has iced in a long time – maybe ever – and they could be looking at their best shot at the Cup within the Ovechkin window. They have a dozen expiring contracts on the books and won’t be able to re-up everyone, so there’s a good chance they head into next season looking quite different.

Who knows, maybe they even decide to blow it up in Washington.

They shouldn’t, but falling in Game 7 would undoubtedly be viewed as a choke by many, the latest example of Washington not being able to overcome their postseason demons. The Penguins have a talented, deep team that is capable of topping the Capitals, but Pittsburgh is without their best defenseman in Kris Letang and their starting goalie in Matt Murray. Plus, Sidney Crosby has looked a bit off since suffering a concussion in Game 3.

If there’s a year for the Caps to exorcise their demons, it seems like this would be it.

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And if they were to finally get over the hump and secure a spot in the conference final? What a story it would be.

Furthering what has been a common theme in the Caps’ postseason history, they looked to be losing grips on a series despite playing well. They consistently out-shot and out-chanced their opponent, but ran into a hot goaltender and got beat.

They found themselves in 2-0 and 3-1 series holes, but they surged when they needed to and finally got some breaks to pull even in the series. If they were to finish the job with a win in Game 7, it would be an incredibly satisfying win.

Not to mention the fact that waiting for them on the other side of the Eastern Conference Final is a highly beatable Ottawa Senators team, one that essentially has been dragged to the third round on the back of Erik Karlsson and his godly play.

But the stakes are also real for the Penguins.

Despite the injuries that have plagued some of the difference-makers on their roster, Pittsburgh has weathered the storm and forged on in admirable fashion. Toppling the Caps would speak volumes to their front office, the team’s depth and the ability to coach through adversity.

One more win and the Pens meet the Senators, who they can (and should) beat. At risk of getting too ahead of ourselves here, a victory in that series would mean a second-straight appearance in the Stanley Cup Final – and their fourth in the past decade -- with a chance to repeat as champions.

Are we having a dynasty discussion at that point? It’s not out of the question.

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Out west, the Ducks and Oilers have battled valiantly. The tides have been constantly turning in that series.

After the Oilers jumped out to a 2-0 series lead, the Ducks took the next two games and pulled even. Then, the Ducks had an incredible comeback in a Game 5 double-overtime thriller. It was so intense that it smelled like a series-altering game.

But then the Oilers bounced back and laid seven goals on Anaheim, giving us one more game to figure out who deserves to move on.

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Much like the Capitals, the Ducks are a team that’s looking to fight their way over the postseason hump.

Anaheim has seen sustained regular season success under a core group of elders including Ryan Getzlaf, Ryan Kesler and Corey Perry. Their five consecutive division titles are good for the longest active streak in the NHL, but they’ve advanced past the postseason’s second round just once in that timeframe — a conference final defeat in 2015.

Those three vets have tasted postseason success before -- Getzlaf and Perry won a Cup with the Ducks as 21-year-olds in 2007, while Kesler made the Cup final with Vancouver in 2011 – and have been key contributors through the first six games of this series as they try to make another run.

Getzlaf has been a monster, recording 10 points and giving the Oilers headaches while they tried to figure out how to slow him down. Kesler has five points while staring down the unenviable task of suppressing Oilers superstar Connor McDavid. Perry has been highly active around the net and has five points of his own, including the overtime game-winner in Game 5.

The fate of the Ducks largely lies in the hands of those older guys and how they perform on Wednesday night. They can either showcase their fortitude by bouncing back from an embarrassing shellacking, or they can be eliminated in a Game 7 on home ice after losing the preceding Game 6 for the fifth straight season.

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Of all four teams taking the ice on Wednesday night, the Oilers are the squad with the least amount of pressure on them.

After decade of irrelevance in which their success was limited to draft lottery wins, the Oilers have already proven that they’re a team worth taking seriously again. That will extend far beyond this postseason.

They’ve got a young core led by the 20-year-old McDavid, who was the only 100-point man in the NHL and will likely win the Hart this season, but they’re far from a one-trick pony. They’re a better team when McDavid is on the ice – as is often the case when you have one of the world’s best players – but they’ve also gotten significant secondary contributions throughout their playoff run.

In fact, the Oilers’ seven goals in Game 6 came without a single point from McDavid on the score sheet. Leon Draisaitl reminded everyone he can be just as fearsome centering his own line, tallying five points and his first career playoff hat trick.

While the Oilers don’t necessarily have a lot to prove, they have a chance to turn even more heads with a Game 7 win against a more established, experienced veteran group. Edmonton extending a feel-good Cinderella run and getting to the conference final would guarantee that one of the league’s most exciting and entertaining players -- McDavid or Nashville’s P.K. Subban -- will make their Stanley Cup Final debut, and that’s pretty great for the NHL.

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So, while we don’t know who’s going to come away with the decisive final win in each of these series, you’d probably be wise to tune in and find out.

This will likely be the last night of this hockey season in which there are two games slated on the same night, and both are Game 7s with a whole lot on the line. There’s going to be drama, there’s going to heartbreak and there’s going to be chaos.